Here at Thinkific we spent a lot of time talking to Course creators. So we’ve heard every reason why somebody might be hesitant to start building their course. A lot of the times it comes down to being afraid to fail. Perhaps they’re worried people are actually interested in learning what they have to say or maybe they’re worried that people won’t pay for their course.
On the flip side people might be hesitant to begin creating their first course because it takes a lot of time and effort. And of course you want to make sure that at the end of it all you have a successful launch. Now you should never let the fear of failure stop you from launching the course of your dreams and sharing your knowledge with the world. However you should spend the time to test and validate your ideas. Right at the beginning to ensure your launch is successful.
There are three key reasons why you should test and validate your course prior to launch.
REASON #1
The first reason is it proves there’s market demand by testing your course you can ensure that there are people out there who are willing to pay for your course.
REASON #2
The second reason you should test and validate your course is that you can begin generating revenue prior to launch by taking advantage of the presale option in Thinkific. This is great because you can begin earning revenue before you’ve even launched your course. How’s that for motivation to get started.
REASON #3
The third reason is it can help you build your list. By talking to people prior to launching your course and gauging their interest, by the time you’re ready to go you’re going to have a bunch of people who are willing to pay money to learn from you.
So now that we’ve determined it’s really important to validate your course content before launching your course, let’s talk about how to do that.
There’s three great ways that you can begin testing your course idea today.
TEST #1
The first one and my favorite is the easiest. Get out there and ask. Talk to the people you already know. Talk to your audience, the list that you have existing, or other course creators, and bounce your ideas off of them. By doing this you can gather genuine feedback and begin crafting an incredible course.
TEST #2
Another great way to do this is by launching a survey. There’s awesome tools out there like typeform or Survey Monkey which can allow you to collect actionable data that you can build into your course. The second way you can begin testing your course concept today, is by creating a presale landing page on Thinkific. This allow you to begin collecting customer emails and prove that people are willing to pay for this course.
TEST #3
The third way you can test your course is by creating a pilot course. Think of a pilot course is your minimum viable product or your minimum viable course if you will. This course still has really valuable content and you offer it to students at a discounted rate in exchange for actionable feedback. This is a really great way to test your content and see how it’s received by your students. By doing this you can continue iterating and adding to your course content until you’re ready to launch. At that point it’s super easy to go back into Thinkific and change your pricing and have your official launch. By testing your course and involving your students in the course design process, you can create a successful course that’s sure to begin generating revenue right at launch.
I hope this video has given you lots of ideas of how to test and validate your course concepts before you get started. This video is actually part of a massive guide to creating and selling online courses that we have created on the Thinkific website. It has everything that you could possibly need to know to create and sell your own online course. Everything from topic selection and validating your content to creating and hosting your own online course. Whether it’s pricing or marketing your course make sure your students are successful.
If you want to learn more about creating online courses, feel free to Create a Free Account today.
These tips are part of our Complete Guide on Creating & Selling your Online Course that you can read right here.
